From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Ken Raeburn Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: Emacs as a desktop environment Date: Wed, 25 May 2011 12:33:55 -0400 Message-ID: <09EEF7C6-A715-412D-ABE7-022681CD2E85@raeburn.org> References: <87aaebbndz.fsf@lifelogs.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: lo.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v1084) Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable X-Trace: dough.gmane.org 1306341247 12181 80.91.229.12 (25 May 2011 16:34:07 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@dough.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 25 May 2011 16:34:07 +0000 (UTC) To: Emacs Dev Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Wed May 25 18:34:04 2011 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([140.186.70.17]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1QPH23-0001ZY-RK for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Wed, 25 May 2011 18:34:04 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:33729 helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1QPH23-0005zy-BP for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Wed, 25 May 2011 12:34:03 -0400 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([140.186.70.92]:48409) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1QPH20-0005zs-Of for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 25 May 2011 12:34:01 -0400 Original-Received: from Debian-exim by eggs.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1QPH1z-00082d-Q6 for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 25 May 2011 12:34:00 -0400 Original-Received: from mail-qw0-f41.google.com ([209.85.216.41]:57599) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.71) (envelope-from ) id 1QPH1z-00082V-No for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Wed, 25 May 2011 12:33:59 -0400 Original-Received: by qwa26 with SMTP id 26so5531658qwa.0 for ; Wed, 25 May 2011 09:33:58 -0700 (PDT) Original-Received: by 10.224.193.1 with SMTP id ds1mr3914144qab.231.1306341237405; Wed, 25 May 2011 09:33:57 -0700 (PDT) Original-Received: from squish.raeburn.org (c-24-128-48-142.hsd1.ma.comcast.net [24.128.48.142]) by mx.google.com with ESMTPS id s16sm5342846qco.37.2011.05.25.09.33.56 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=OTHER); Wed, 25 May 2011 09:33:56 -0700 (PDT) In-Reply-To: <87aaebbndz.fsf@lifelogs.com> X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.1084) X-detected-operating-system: by eggs.gnu.org: GNU/Linux 2.6 (newer, 2) X-Received-From: 209.85.216.41 X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:139701 Archived-At: On May 24, 2011, at 21:05, Ted Zlatanov wrote: > I've been very frustrated lately with the memory and resource use of > gnome-panel, XFCE, and the new Unity UI in Ubuntu 11.04. They use > multiple megabytes of memory for trivial things; they are slow, and = they > make a machine with 3 GB of RAM feel slow just doing trivial things. >=20 > I think GNU Emacs, at least on GNU/Linux systems, can provide much of > the desktop environment functionality, so Emacs + a window manager = like > XMonad is a full desktop experience: I've been experimenting with doing more inside Emacs at work, since I've = been coming back to more Linux desktop use but had grown unfamiliar with = the latest flavors of various apps and document/file viewers in the = latest desktop environments. I'd like to move more in that direction, = too. Some of the stuff I've found handy for this with modern Emacs: * Basic spreadsheet application: ses mode * Screen (or VNC, sort of): emacsclient and daemon mode (but don't build = for gtk!) * Remote login windows: ssh mode, though it could use some updates for = ssh multiplexing and better tramp interaction * Log monitoring window ("tail -f"): auto-revert-mode * Chat program: emacs-jabber mode * image viewer: C-x C-f The emacs-jabber mode was already packaged and installed at work; ssh = mode I found via Google. I still go to external programs for lots of tasks, though: * viewing .doc files, editing/viewing spreadsheets from others, making = presentation slides (OpenOffice); not very common, so not a big deal * PDF viewing (??? whatever the desktop manager launches for these); = Emacs can do it by converting to images, but AFAIK it doesn't support = links within the document (click on this entry in the table of contents = to jump to that page), and sometimes when I'm skimming documents I want = to zip through the pages *really* fast, getting glimpses of each as I go = (e.g., so I can see where I am in the alphabetically ordered reference = section by the titles), and Emacs isn't fast enough * general web browsing (firefox/iceweasel); yes, there's w3 mode, and I = haven't looked at it in a long time, but the last update to the git repo = on gnu.org was three years ago, and it seems like it'd be insufficient = these days unless it's got Java and Javascript and Flash and TLS and = certificate management and video and (etc); well, maybe not video or = Flash much for work specifically * email, shared calendar, address book (Zimbra server, via iceweasel) ** email via Gnus IMAP support is okay, but there's a timeout problem = in 23.3, probably fixed in the trunk ** calendar interface supports some network protocols (e.g., for = Apple's iCal) ** meeting scheduling seems to involve getting email and then clicking = "accept" or "decline" in the webmail view, and then the calendar is = updated; it may be doable through calendar protocols alone ** address book I don't care about too much, so far, but it'd be a = plus * long CLI-oriented sessions (gnome-terminal, but I should look at = comint's support for automatic truncation) * bug tracking (Jira server, via iceweasel); and whaddaya know, Google = points me to the JiraMode node at EmacsWiki, hmm... Usually iceweasel turns out to be the memory pig on my system, but I = wind up needing it for a bunch of things. Multithreading in Emacs is sorely lacking; really, having my log viewer = and ssh windows freeze, because my spreadsheet is being recomputed or = I'm loading a really big file from a slow file server, just isn't = acceptable behavior for a desktop environment. Neither is confining = everything I do to one core's worth of processing power on modern = multicore systems. So I suspect I'm going to be stuck with at least OO, iceweasel, and = gnome-terminal for a while yet. > - load indicators (CPU, memory, network load, etc.): can be done with = SVG Ooh, this sounds interesting... Ken=